


Little Things You Do Together

by betweentheheavesofstorm



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Baking, Cuddling & Snuggling, Cupcakes, Domestic Avengers, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, background nat/sharon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-18
Updated: 2016-10-18
Packaged: 2018-08-23 05:37:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8315887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/betweentheheavesofstorm/pseuds/betweentheheavesofstorm
Summary: There are two things Steve Rogers isn't good at: baking, and doing it at reasonable hours.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Birthday Carol!

 

There are lots of different proverbs about not really knowing someone until sharing a certain experience with them. Sometimes these are relatively achievable, such as discovering how they deal with losing their keys or getting caught in the rain. Sometimes the person who came up with the proverb has given little thought to practicality, as there’s definitely one about exposing somebody’s true nature by dangling them over a volcano.

Now, Sam Wilson is fond of proverbs when they’re useful and not when they aren’t, but he’s never seen the importance of holding somebody over a volcano (or hiding their keys) in order to get to know them. He considers himself a fairly good judge of character and has rarely been surprised by Hidden Depths within his acquaintances.

The arrival of Steve Rogers into his life has caused Sam to doubt these two strengths. His first impression of Steve was not _Jesus that’s Captain America_ or even _whoa that dude is hot_ , though both of those thoughts registered somewhere. No, his first thought was _is this guy kidding me_ and upon introductions Sam decided that this superhero fella seemed a nice dude, even if he was also annoying.

He was not prepared for the friendship to mean he’d be harboring fugitives, returning to combat or discussing laundry detergent with an (ex) Russian spy, meaning that perhaps he needed to think again about how good he was at judging people.

Furthermore, the discovery made at 2am of Steve Rogers trying and failing to ice cupcakes in his underwear prompted Sam to realise that up until this moment he _hadn’t_ truly known Steve and that it was only now that he saw him entirely.

He also realised that he really needed to teach his boyfriend how to bake.

 

________

 

‘I don’t get what went wrong,’ Steve was saying. He’d printed out an online recipe and kept consulting it, as though hoping that Delia Smith’s printed face would come to life and explain what had happened. ‘I followed it exactly.’

‘You couldn’t have waited until the morning?’ Sam leans against the kitchen counter and wills his eyes to stay open. It’s been a long day, even for him, and he’d hoped to arrive home to find everything snug and cosy. In fact, the fantasy of crawling into bed and stealing Steve’s body heat had sustained him for the last ten miles.

‘They’re for Natasha,’ Steve said. ‘Obnoxious relationship cupcakes. She made me some, remember?’

Sam casts his mind back. ‘She bought those.’

‘In any case, she deserves some back.’ Steve gestures to the cooling rack. He’s piped rainbow icing onto half of them, though it looks like he’s got the consistency of the frosting wrong because it’s beginning to run down the sides. The cakes themselves are somewhat misshapen and looking at the ones that have yet to be iced is enough to make Sam feel queasy.

‘Buy her some,’ he says. ‘Or make more, tomorrow.’

‘There isn’t time. She and Sharon are coming at eight and she deliberately held off telling me till now because she knew it would be too late.’

That’s only six hours away. Sam makes a mental note to give Natasha a piece of his mind and tell both her _and_ Steve that the ridiculous teasing between them has to stop. Maybe he can get Sharon to back him up.

‘The gas station is open all night,’ he says, moving away from the kitchen to take his boots off and put them away. ‘I’m sure it has cupcakes.’

‘Only horrible ones,’ Steve muses. He seems to have accepted that his homemade venture has failed, as he’s started to clean up.

In Sam’s opinion Natasha doesn’t deserve any cake at this point. It’s a mark of his tact that what he says aloud is, ‘I thought it was the gesture that counted.’

‘You’re right,’ Steve nods. ‘Maybe I should go now.’

‘No.’

‘No?’

‘Go in the morning. If Captain America appears at a gas station at seven am to buy cake, it can be assumed he’s buying sweet snacks to sustain his superhero team. If Captain America appears at a gas station at half-past two in the morning to buy cake there will be endless speculation about the emptiness of your life or possible insomnia.’

‘OK. You’re right.’ Steve looks at his boyfriend, and then at the mess he’s made of the kitchen. ‘I better clean this up.’

‘You do that. I’m going to bed.’

Steve softens. He really shouldn’t be able to look that sweet, Sam thinks. It’s just unfair. The dude couldn’t just be all muscle; he had to be a teddy bear about it as well.

‘I’m sorry for keeping you up.’

‘I’m blaming Natasha. And you, when you don’t look so cute.’ Sam starts up the stairs without giving Steve time to respond, lest he let the comment go to his head.

Five minutes later he’s stripped down to boxers and has climbed into bed. It’s a moment he’s been looking forward to and it doesn’t disappoint. The mattress is beautifully comfortable and the soft duvet seems to envelop him, feeling like what he imagines cartoon clouds would be like.

Overwhelmed by the comfort after so many hours in the car, Sam drifts off. It doesn’t matter that he’s only got six hours, hell, they’re Steve’s guests so he can sleep in.

About twenty minutes later a sudden light disturbs him and then the duvet is tugged away. He protests, unintelligibly, still only half conscious. It’s hardly fair to wake him up so soon.

The light goes out again after a short pause and then Steve’s in the bed beside him. Sam reclaims his half of the duvet (midnight tug-of-wars rarely end well when the other person is a supersoldier) and then snuggles closer, trying to absorb the other man’s body heat.

One of Steve’s arms reaches round to rest on Sam’s shoulders. Sam breathes in the comfortable familiarity, sinking down into his pillow until there’s nowhere else to go but into unconsciousness.

 

_______

 

It isn’t Steve leaving that wakes him; Sam’s used to his other half getting up first. Force of habit and superhero duties both mean that Steve’s often obligated to rise at unholy hours. Sometime around six am Sam dimly registers that the other half of the bed is empty. It doesn’t bother him; he simply takes all of the duvet now that it’s up for grabs.

About forty minutes later Steve returns. Again, this is a usual enough event not to merit Sam’s waking up. The large paper bag of doughnuts, however, demands immediate attention.

‘I got the cupcakes,’ Steve says, sliding into bed beside Sam. ‘And I thought I’d get breakfast as well.’

‘This isn’t _breakfast_ ,’ Sam says, though he’s too sleepy for it to sound convincing. ‘Calling it that implies nutrition.’

‘Fat is one of the food groups you need,’ Steve reasons, extricating a large ring covered in powdered sugar and handing it to his boyfriend.

‘This can be a starter,’ Sam accepts it. Trying to eat healthily with Steve around can be harder than it ought to be. On the one hand, Steve’s generally a healthy and active person and will happily have avocado toast for breakfast. On the other hand, he also has a super-metabolism and so daily doughnuts probably wouldn’t have any adverse effect.  

The doughnuts are good; he’ll give Steve that. An even mix of rings and ones filled with jam, all of them covered in sugar. Sam leans closer to rest his head on Steve’s shoulder and concedes that maybe, this makes up for the previous night.

**Author's Note:**

> Me? Writing fluff? I know, I'm as shocked as anyone. But it just so happens to be my girlfriend's birthday she's a fluff person. 
> 
> If you enjoyed it, please leave a comment below :)


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